Hidden Secrets Part 1
Hidden Secrets Part 1 *NOTE* Characters such as Plumeria, Pangolin, and Boa have been created by me, Jaguar the RainWing. {the author} Please ask if you would like to use some of my created characters in your own fanfics. Other characters such as Orangutan, Jambu, and Secretkeeper have been created by Tui T. Sutherland. This fanfic is dedicated to Gidget, my dog who sat by the couch as I was writing this, and sat by my bed as I was typing this. <3 <3 <3 Summary Plum the curious RainWing knows that her curiosity will get her in trouble one day. And one day, it does. When she brings home something new, but dangerous, the whole tribe may be in grave danger. Chapter 1 "Ooh, there goes Plum again, on another quest!" "I wonder what she'll discover next!" It was a usual, bright, sunny day in the RainWing village as the bright yellow RainWing glided through the trees. Vivid butterflies stirred up and fluttered away when she occasionally hit a branch with her wing. Although she was only four years old, Plumeria, or Plum for short, had already discovered three types of fruit, two species of frogs, and at least five species of rainforest plants. All because she was curious. Through the dense trees and vines, Plum could see a wide sun platform, where two other RainWings were waiting. "Plum, it's nearly noon. Where have you been?" the first RainWing asked. He was a serene periwinkle shade with lavender splotches here and there. "Just marking more stuff on my map." Plum answered honestly. "For an entire hour?" he said. "Hey you're the one who sleeps in 'till, like, 10! I'm pointing at you Pangolin," the second RainWing joked. Pangolin flipped onto his back and mumbled something like 'can't say that's wrong'. The second RainWing was hanging by her prehensile tail off a tree branch above. Today she was gold with thick, pink stripes rippling though her body and wings. "Great, another storm," the golden dragon observed. Indeed, a great mass of clouds were billowing towards them a number of miles away. "Yeah, there is, but we just had a storm two or three days ago, right Boa?" Plum replied. Suddenly, Pangolin's scales turned bright yellow as he noticed a creature in the tree next to them. "Leaf, there you are!" Pangolin exclaimed, flipping back over. He glided over to the tree and gently took the creature from the branch it was hanging from. He went back over with the creature on his head. "I knew you'd come back, you just can't go on without me, huh?" "Rrrble," Leaf murmured. Plum tilted her head at him. Plum admitted, she was a bit jealous of Pangolin's sloth. He was the youngest one in the village to have one, and there were days when Plum hoped to find a sloth on her neck in the morning. But there never was. Plum always assumed that the sloths chose the more laid-back, carefree RainWings. Like Pangolin. "Who's a real RainWing," Plum thought sadly. "So, what are we going to do today?" Boa asked, breaking the silence. "Flying around? Gathering fruit? Discovering something?" "How about all three?" Plum answered with a grin. "Ah. My favorite." Boa grinned back. And together, the three dragons lifted into the bright sky, but the strom was still billowing behind them. "Leaf, it would be very helpful if you could REMOVE YOUR CLAWS FROM MY EYES. That way I can actually SEE." Pangolin exclaimed. Leaf was gazing at the passing trees and birds with awe, his small claws planted on Pangolin's face for grip. "Ha! Maybe you'll crash into a flock of parrots like that last time." Boa giggled, Pangolin moved Leaf's claws onto his horns to glare at Boa. "Hey, guys, cut the quarrel. I'll personally shove you into a tree if you keep it up," Plum ordered. Boa bit back laughter. Sometime later, they came across a papaya tree, its branches full of juicy, ripe papayas. "Yes! My favorite!" Plum exclaimed. She had gotten quite hungry during the flight. She reached for one, but suddenly Pangolin reached out and stopped her. "Wait, wait, wait. Hold your hibiscus. Look at that papaya! It has black goo all over it!" He said, his eyes wide. "It does! '' I wonder what could have done that. Maybe a snake decided he wanted to take out all of his anger on this papaya for some reason," Boa said, her eyes widening, too, but not daring to touch it. Plum instantly shifted to a glittery yellow-orange, like the sun about to set. The papaya looked like something had bit out of it, decided it didn't like it, and set it back on a tree branch. "Grblrbl," Leaf commented. "Three moons, it's nearly suntime. We'd better go now or we'll be late." Boa gestured to the way they came. She and Pangolin then glided away. Plum lingered where she was to investigate futher on the black goo, but then she heard her friend's voices calling, "C'mon, Plum! Let's go!" She quickly took a good papaya for the flight back, then flew to where her friends were hovering. Plum scanned her papaya midair, to make sure it was ripe, but couldn't help thinking that that goo may be a dangerous threat to the rainforest. Chapter 2 Plum woke up late the next day. She drowsily stepped out of her hammock that she had slept in the previous night. Plum stretched her wings and blinked the grogginess away, and leapt on top of a nearby tree. She felt around in its branches, then pulled out a bandicoot-berry ink pen and a tattered piece of paper. She rolled the map out, marking the place where the nasty papaya had been. Plum didn't know how long she stayed there, but before she knew it, it was 8:45. "Three moons! Tree gliding starts in 15 minutes!" She said aloud. Plum didn't hesitate. Soon she was at the arbortoreum where tree gliding lessons took place. Jambu was there, as usual, and so were 5 other RainWing dragonets, including Pangolin and Boa. Some dragonets had bright scales, others had mellow scales, but Boa was mimicking Jambu's scales, which was his usual pink scales with fuschia swirls. This was Plum and Pangolin's last year in tree gliding, but Boa was a year younger, so she still had one more year. "So, today we are going to have a test, and that test will be a race. Each of you will go up against one another and the winners will get an automatic A+." Jambu explained. Plum furrowed her brows. She never really liked tree gliding. She much preferred soaring ''over ''the treetops instead. "Alright," Jambu continued. "Pangolin will be going up against Tualang, Boa against Capuchin, and Plumeria against Agouti. Pangolin and Tualang, you two can go first." Pangolin only beat Tualang by a wingtip, even though Tualang was only three. "Very good to the both of you! Next will be Plumeria and Agouti." Plum was a bit nervous about going against Agouti, since he was big for his age. "Ready, set, go!" Jambu announced, yellow blotting through his pink scales. Agouti took off first, but Plum was close behind. She did her best to keep up, until about halfway through, Agouti hit his large wing on a tree branch, which was enough for Plum to take the lead. she could see the finishing platform now, but Agouti was swiftly catching up. Plum latched her tail on a branch, swung over it, and made sure her wings unfurled fast enough. She stumbled when she finally landed on the finishing platform, and milliseconds later, she heard the thump of Agouti's talons beside her. Agouti was now an orange-red of defeat, but Plum's scales remained silver. "Very good, very good! Now Boa and Capuchin are next." Plum thought she heard that wrong. Boa and Capuchin? Capuchin was the swiftest dragonet in the class. Why would Jambu make Boa go against Capuchin? "Ready, set, go!" Jambu announced again. This time Boa took off first, but Capuchin easily overtook her. Capuchin's scales turned to gold, as if he already knew he was going to win. Boa was too focused on her gliding to notice, but at the end Capuchin did reach the platform first. "You all did great! But the winners are Pangolin, Plum, and Capuchin." As soom as Plum was back at her hammock, it was already suntime. She crawled back into her hammock and quickly fell asleep. Chapter 3 A few days later, Plum and Boa were talking to Oragutan about the other tribes. "Why, you young ones seem to be the first ones interested that I've seen in ages!" He exclaimed. A faraway, almost sad look came into his eyes and a mellow teal leaked into his scales. "There are ones called SandWings, which live far from here, and they are always a pale yellow color, at least that I've seen." He went on. "Really?" Boa gasped, her scales yellow, too. "They can't change the color of their scales?" "Nope. They always stay the same color. But they ''also ''have poisonous tail barbs. Like our venom, but on their tail in a little hook at the end." The old dragon said. "Hrbrr." Leaf said, amazed. Boa was taking care of Leaf while Pangolin was taking a nap, and all of their eyes were wide. "Well, that's it for now, young ones." Orangutan said. "Awww," the two young dragons sighed in dismay. "I'm gonna take a nap now. You can come back tomorrow if ya' like." He said with a glimmer in his eye. Then he flapped over to an empty platform and settled down. Boa and Plum did the same. It was dawn when Plum woke up the next day. There was no tree gliding class today, so Plum was free to do whatever she felt like. Other than suntime, of course, dawn was her very favorite time of day. With the sun just peeping over the horizon; the sky a warm pinkish orange, and the silhouettes of lorikeets flying over to find a snack. Plum crept back to her tree and unrolled her map again. She plucked a mango from the pile of assorted fruit she left from the day before. She gazed at her map and took a bite of the mango. An awful flavor filled her mouth, like if she had eaten a poison-dart frog. "Plah!" Plum spat out the the mango and instantly turned her scales a deep purple, for she had spat it out much louder than she intended. She looked at the remaining piece of mango, and to her horror, it was utterly covered in the black goo. She involuntarily flung the mango over the side of the platform she was sprawled out on, and tried to get all of the goo out of her mouth. The mango landed on the forest floor with a large ''SPLAT. "Darnit! That could've been evidence!" She scolded herself. She flapped down to the forest floor, and turned her scales black to blend in. Plum looked around nervously. The forest floor was definitely not her favorite place. Why be where it's all dark and where all the dangerous creatures lurked, when you could be chatting to the toucans while basking in the sun? Plum shook herself. She was not going to chicken out on a (probably) epic discovery. Then she saw the footprints. They were dragon shaped, but so tiny. She kept following them, until she reached some tallish ferns by a thick mahogany tree. Plum pushed them aside, and then almost fainted. There was a hollow behind the ferns, and inside was a tiny, black, dragonet. "Ma-" it started, but then broke off as it saw the orange-yellow erupt into Plum's snout and ears. All Plum could do was gasp. "Is it a RainWing dragonet? Or that other dragon Orangutan was talking about?" Plum thought to herself in sheer excitement. "No, it can't be. This one is ''black," She poked it to see if it would change color. It just giggled. Plum thought it to be about two weeks old. It was so ''tiny- ''and defenseless. "''What if it's ''meant ''to be here? What if someone put it here on purpose?" Plum thought, now very concerned. "But what if it ''wasn't? What if it's left here to perish?" She knew a jaguar could eat it in moments. Plum couldn't risk that. So without a word or thought, se picked up the dragonet and flew away. The moons had risen when a dragon dark as the night sprinted through the rainforest. "''I really, really hope she's alright," the dragoness thought with a pang of worry. She thought of her daughter's eyes dancing with joy when she arrived at the hollow. "She is why I'm risking this. All the lies, all the guilt, it is worth it. It had better be." She thought fiercely. She finally arrived at the dark hollow, expecting the little eyes filled with joy. But there was none. All that was in the hollow was a pile of leaves. Frantic, Secretkeeper ripped apart the area closeby, looking in grass and under stones. "What if she got lost-or if she got eaten-or-or-oh, I knew I wasn't ready for a dragonet! I knew I should have raised her at the island! It was all a terrible mistake." Secretkeeper thought. The panic shifted to sorrow, and she wiped away tears. Then the idea hit her. "The RainWings." the black dragon knew she should have chosen a hiding spot farther away from the RainWing Village. The sorrow immediately turned into rage. "Why would they have taken her? Well, we'll find out. But I'm going to need help." With that, the dragoness sped back into the dense trees, a plan forming evilly in her mind as she ran. END OF PART 1 Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed! -Jaguar Category:Fanfictions